October 2015
RB
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Issue 10
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Volume 24
Mo
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Benz Viktoria 1893
The significance of the Benz Viktoria was the
adoption of “double-pivot steering” wherein, unlike
the carriage steering of the day, the front axle
remains fixed and the wheels swivel or, as Karl Benz
put it in his patent application; "vehicle steering
device with steering circles to be tangentially
positioned in relation to the wheels". This car was
owned by Baron Theodor von Liebieg who, in the
summer of 1894, drove it for 2500km around
Germany and France in the first long-distance
excursion in motoring history. Unfortunately there is
no readily available plastic model kit of this vehicle,
the next best being the old Gakken 1886 Daimler. The
car is now on display at the National Czech Museum
in Prague - see Roger’s report on page 6.
A Community Group Proudly Supported by the City of Whitehorse
EVENTS & INFORMATION
Editorial
Events Calendar
D
on’t know if you watched the Edinburgh Military
Tattoo on TV last Saturday night but if you did you
may have noticed the ‘Spitfire’ parked in the corner of
the Esplanade. Of course it wasn’t a Spitfire, which
even a cursory knowledge of the type would have
made obvious pretty quickly. It was, in fact, a light
home-built sold in kit form by the Supermarine Aircraft
company, originating in Brisbane QLD but now in
Cisco, Texas, USA. They produce a small number of
variants under the pretentious title of Spitfire Mk26 (or
26b if you want two-seats). This Mk26 belongs to a
Scottish owner and is an 80% ‘replica’ with an eightcylinder boxer engine. It’s the aerial equivalent of a
Ford GT40 fibreglass replica body bolted onto a VW
Beetle chassis.
24-25th October 2015
Wings Aircraft Scale Model Competition and
Exhibition
Australian National Aviation Museum
2nd Avenue, Moorabbin Airport
All enquiries to kgaff@bigpond.com
13-14-15th November
ESSMC Canberra Trip
If you’re interested make sure you’ve given your
name to Frank!
14th November 2015
Bayonet Model Competition & Swap Meet
Liberator Hangar
Cnr. Farm Road & Princes Hwy. Werribee
9:00am - 4:00pm
Entry $5.00. Tables & Details; 0425 860 472
To be honest, it looks less like the real thing than the
worst plastic scale model kit from the last sixty years,
but I’m not criticizing the aircraft itself or those who
build or own them, just its inclusion in the Tattoo for
the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. To quote
the Tattoo publicity; “The Spitfire Mark I sitting in the
arena is a reminder to everyone of the sacrifices
made by the airmen whilst protecting the British skies
in 1940....”. I think the Tattoo has finally gone over the
edge with this travesty.
21st-22nd November 2015
Southern Model Club Competition and Swap
Church of Christ Hall
2-12 Chesterville Road. Cheltenham
Sat. 10am - 5pm. Sun. 10:30am - 5pm.
Swap & Sell Sunday at Pine Street Hall
Entry $2. Details: Rob; 0432 051 548
1st December 2015
ESSMC Christmas Break-up & BBQ
2016
6th March 2016
ESSMC Annual Swap & Sell
Arbour Room, Box Hill Community Arts Centre
Cnr Combarton Road & Station Street, Box Hill
10:00am - 12:30pm
Tables & details; Roger 0439 650 800
Michael
President:
Frank Spinosa 0418 555 324
bigspin1@bigpond.net.au
Secretary:
Michael Howe 9874-5702
essmc@ozemail.com.au
Treasurer:
Frank Spinosa 0418 555 324
bigspin1@bigpond.net.au
Newsletter:
Michael Howe 9874-5702
essmc@ozemail.com.au
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Presitorial
The Sweet Smell of Victory
A
s I sit here and ponder three Grand Finals in
a row, four out of five even, are the mighty
Hawks the greatest team ever? Maybe they are
(whoever they are... Ed).
On a lesser note, a good day was had by all who
attended the Waverley Interclub. We had a day
of building models, telling stories and sniffing
glue. What a high!
Unfortunately without the leadership of Peter
McKinnon, we managed a healthy second place.
Earlier in the month Glenn and I went to the
Northern Area Model show and swap meet and
spent an enjoyable day wheeling and dealing.
This year is flying past
and before we know it
Christmas will be upon
us but, before then, we
still have the Canberra
trip and Bayonet Model
show plus others.
I can only end with a
little song I know goes
like this - “We're a
happy team at
Hawthorn, we're the mighty fighting Hawks” - all
others suffer in your jocks!
The Model Fuhrer
Frank
TCAR
ST
FROM
MI
RS RE
n the distance we see the trees of an Asian
jungle.
Smoke and dust rise up in the
foreground. There is a slow ‘woop, woop, woop,’
sound as an OH-64 flies across the screen. More
choppers, these are Huey’s. Music begins, ‘The
End’ by The Doors, and then the tree line erupts in
OS
D
I
out at threehundred pounds,
the shooting
schedule went out
the window, overbudget to the
extent of being the
most expensive
movie at the time,
NE
Charlie Don't Surf
P
Gary Zimmer
not helped by
hiring the
Filipino Air
Force's entire
s t o c k o f
helicopters
who often just
flew away in
the middle of a
s c e n e .
Despite this
F r a n c i s
C o p p o l a
resisted the
urge to shoot
himself and
t
h
e
masterpiece
eventually was
finished and,
u n l i k e
a huge curtain of red
flame. So begins one
of my favorite movies,
so iconic that its
catchphrases are part
of the language.
Where else would you
have an attack by
helicopter gunships
playing Wagner's Ride
of the Valkyries?
Just as fascinating is
Hearts of Darkness,
the story behind the
making of Apocalypse
Now. Everything that
could go wrong did. A
year over time on
location in the
Philippines, Martin
Sheen had a heart
attack, Marlon Brando arrived on location porked
anything Kevin Costner did, Apocalypse Now
made a profit.
Gary Zimmer
An integral part of the film is a US Navy PBR,
Patrol Boat River, crewed by Petty Officer George
Phillips, Engineman Jay “Chef” Hicks, Gunners
Mate 3rd class Lance Johnson, and GM3 Tyrone
“Mr Clean” Miller. Supernumerary was Captain
Willard on a mission that didn't exist. The PBR
While we are on the subject of Vietnam War
movies, easily the worst, most stupid, pile of dung
would be The Green Berets (1968). John Wayne
was not only involved by standing in front of a
camera (well you can't call it acting!) but also was
responsible for producing this propaganda, as his
bit for the war for his mate
Tricky Dicky.
John
Wayne looks out of
place, a few decades
older than the typical
Vietnam serviceman.
The Green Berets is on
just about every worst
movies listing. The farce
continues to the bitter
end, with Wayne on the
beach at sunset
preaching propaganda.
The problem is that if you
look at a map, Vietnam's
western border is land
(that's Cambodia,
Captain). Vietnam does
however have some west
facing coast, but to be
there John Wayne would
have to be about as far
from the shooting as it is
was fast and manoeuvrable but
carried minimal armor. They
were fiberglass, powered by a
pair of GM diesels, each driving
waterjets supplied by Jacuzzi
Brothers Inc. The PBR carried a
pair of .50 cal. machine guns up
front, another at the rear, an M60
on each side and a 40mm
grenade launcher, plus the
crew's weapons.
The good news is that now a PBR
is available in 1/72 scale. The
bad news is that it is made by
Mach 2, whose products are a
challenge to say the least.
Basically if Mach 2 ever made an
axe, all you would need to do is
install a new handle, fit a new
head and you would have a
perfectly good axe. Well maybe not quite that
bad. Anyway it is good to have a model with a link
to one of my favourite flicks. I love the smell of
napalm in the morning.
possible to be, which was pretty much what he
was doing about twenty-five years before.
Gary
Feature
N a t i o n a l Tr a n s p o r t a t i o n
Museum – Prague, Czech
Republic
August 2015
O
n a recent trip to Europe, specifically Prague,
I was able to visit this museum of transport.
Actually it's a museum of many other things, if you
have the time and the inclination. Time only
permitted our tour of this section.
On the day we visited it was 36 degrees Celsius,
and was apparently been about the sixth day in
succession of that heat. The Czech's were
getting a bit sick of all this heat. Needles s to say,
the museum was NOT air conditioned! We had
spent the morning walking around Prague and
Both the signs and a very stout “Gestapo-esque”
female directed us to the starting point with a
stern “NO DRINKING” warning in broken
English. Scary!
We started with the 1893 Benz Viktoria featured
on the front page, being a very traditional
“horseless carriage design” with leaf springs,
rear engine, chain drive and cumbersome
were hoping for some respite in the
Museum………WRONG!
The set-up of this part of the museum is quite
clever. It opens up like a vast atrium, in the order
of five storeys high, and all the open-air space of
this void is filled with all manner of aircraft, but
that's another story…
Spread across the floor of this area was a
scattering of cars, including a few rarities in their
own right, let alone vehicles never seen in
Australia. The walls were adorned with full length
balconies, housing even more exhibits – car
paraphernalia, motor cycles, aircraft
paraphernalia and models, topped with bicycles
around the uppermost balcony. And here's a
picture:
controls:
The initial “paddock” of vehicles contained
another fifteen vehicles ranging from the 1893
specimen, through to 1924, with this “Laurin &
Klement 105” (over page), which I had never
heard of before:
Feature
Another strange beast from the thirties being the
Tatra 77A (below) – aerodynamic, right??
Into the next “paddock”, we started with a very
small “Aero 10 hp” (below) from 1930 – which
could no doubt be classed as the “Austin Seven”
from the West.
And only a few vehicles on we find something
quite strange (below), “Jawa”s venture into four
wheels, with the “750”….
An old favourite in the middle of this, is the SS
Jaguar 3.5 Litre (below) from 1938.
Also from the same era, came this Mercedes,
initially brought in during the occupation of the
Czech land. This invasion brought about a major
change in Czech motoring, in that they were
forced to switch from driving on the left, to driving
on the right. This was not as severe as, of course,
the ensuing fifty years of two dictatorships, where
the Merceded became the favourite car of state.
The Back Page
This car belonged to Hermann Frank of the SS. He was
executed for his war crimes in 1946, and his car is now
preserved in this museum. And yes, that is a Spitfire
behind the Merc.
reports for Czech radio.
racing classics:
In post-war years, the Czech's continued with more novel
productions, such as this Tatra 87, of 1947. This car was
donated to the museum in 1959, after the owner, Jifi
Hanzelka had completed numerous travels around the
world in it, being the subject of many books, films, and
And finally, there were some
This one, and that one….
Want to know or
see more? You
should've been to
the October
E S S M C
Meeting!
Roger
comfortably - it’s a little hard on the back of the skull
and I might try to put a bit of soft material both there
and on the forehead pad. Perhaps one of those
headbands the tennis-players wear would work even
if it does make you look like a dork.
Tamiya Craft Tools
Magnifying Visor
F
or good,
flexible
binocular vision
that leaves your
hands free you
need either
magnifying
reading glasses
or a headmounted visor. If
you already wear
g l a s s e s
permanently, like
me, then the
head-mount
is your only
alternative. I
u s e d
a
cheaper one
that I got from
Jaycar many moons ago but, as well as being
bulky it tends to get very sweaty, especially in the
warmer months so I was looking for an alternative
that wouldn’t break the bank.
The lenses each come in a protective plastic slip-case
in which you leave them while clipping to the frame so
you shouldn’t get fingerprints on them; and the whole
thing packs into a zipped bag when not in use - pretty
neat, as you’d expect from Tamiya.
Optional extras are two monocular lenses of 3x and 4x
but I can’t seem to find them anywhere at the moment.
Michael
Tamiya’s Magnifying Visor fits the bill;
h t t p s : / / w w w. t a m i y a u s a . c o m / i t e m s / t o o l s accessories-80/tools-74000/magnifying-visor74092 It’s fairly light, comes with 1.7X, 2.0x and
2.5x binocular lenses and cost about $60.00 from
Tokyo-Hobby. I’ve yet to see how long I can wear it
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